(it's a pretty loaded question... what does "for who I am" mean anyway?)
Since this question is asked in the context of sharing the gospel I thought I'd share about a recent conversation I had. Just the other day as I was taking a walk during my lunch break I approached a young man in order to try to share the gospel with him. He was in front of me and I said(I'll be paraphrasing as I may not recall the exact wording exchanged), "Hey young man (he stopped and turned around), can I encourage you with this booklet, it has a good message in it, it starts out with this good question, ‘Are You A Good Person?’”. As he took the booklet and looked at it I said, "I sometimes ask people the question, ‘Would you consider yourself to be good enough to go to heaven if you stood before God today?' How would you answer that question?” He said something like, "Probably not.” I asked, "Why not?” He said, "Because of all the bad stuff I’ve done and keep doing.”
I said, "So you don’t think you’ve done well with God’s standard of goodness? For example, how do you think you’ve done with the Ten Commandments?” He said, "I think I’ve done pretty well with them actually.” After asking him about a few specific Commandments (about lying, stealing, blasphemy, and heart-adultery, which he admitted to committing)(like Jesus did with the rich young ruler in Matt.19:16-22), I said, "I'm not judging you but you've just admitted to me that you're a lying, thieving, blasphemous adulterer at heart, and you have to face God on Judgment Day." He laughed a bit and was pretty surprised, but he agreed. Then I asked him if he thought he would be found innocent or guilty based on that standard if He stood before God today. He immediately said guilty. I asked him if it would mean heaven or hell for him, and he said hell.
When I asked him if it concerned him, he stayed quiet for a moment in reflection and then said, "Well, yeah, but I can’t worry too much about it because after all, I can’t just ask for forgiveness.” He said he had tried Catholicism and Jehovah’s Witnesses but it didn’t work out for him. I asked him if he knew what God had done so we could be forgiven and escape the judgment of hell. He said he had no clue. I then explained that God sent His Son Jesus Christ from heaven to earth around 2,000 years ago, that He lived a perfect life we could never live, that He voluntarily laid down His life and suffered and died on the cross to take our punishment, and that He rose again from the dead. I explained that what God commands us to do is to repent (turn from our sins) and believe (trust) in Jesus Christ.
I asked him if what I shared made sense and he said it did. I asked him when he thought he would repent and trust in Christ, to which he replied, "Well, when I’m ready I guess because I honestly don’t think I’m ready right now.” I reasoned with him about the value of his soul. I asked him if he would sell his eyes for 50 million dollars and he said no way. I told him that if his eyes are so priceless and valuable to him how much more valuable should his soul be, and then shared with him Matthew 10:26 which warns about losing one’s soul for all of eternity in hell. I asked him if he could guarantee that he would see another day (he said no), and I reasoned with him and shared scriptures about the brevity of this life and the need to repent and trust Christ today.
I then gave him one of my church’s info cards and invited him to church. He asked if we accept homosexuals. I told him we welcome everyone to our church services, and that we share with everyone the same message I had just shared with him, that one must turn from their sins and trust in Christ for the forgiveness of their sins, regardless of what their sins are or what background they come from. I did tell him that we do believe that homosexuality is a sin, like heterosexual fornication or adultery or getting drunk or high or cursing are sins we must turn from. I shared with Him about being born again and experiencing life-transformation by God's power and receiving a new heart with new desires. He was nodding in sort of semi-agreement (seemingly resistant). So I left him with those thoughts and shook his hand and we parted ways.
So when it comes to sharing the gospel with homosexuals I don’t believe it’s always necessary to even mention the sin of homosexuality, unless they bring it up or we discern that they need to understand what God says about it. As we reason about other sins God the Holy Spirit can bring enough conviction of sin, righteousness and judgment.
